Good News Ahead for Pre-school Sector

Monday 4th Dec 2000 Donna Awatere Huata Media Release -- Education

ACT Education spokesperson Donna Awatere Huata said she looks forward to the Minister of Education’s next announcement on funding for Early Childhood Education. “The Minister of Education conceded in question time last week that the Government has not spent enough in the pre-school sector and that I had made ‘a good case for further increases in this area’.

“The real issue is that early childhood education is struggling.

“Teachers are poorly paid; there is low Maori participation in early childhood education and quality issues in classroom programmes, can quite frankly, only be resolved with correct funding.

“The budget increases for tertiary student loans were 10-and-a-half times greater than for early childhood education.

“How can we be assured of talented university graduates if money is not put into the pre-school sector?

“We must cultivate an environment of educational achievement. This starts with early childhood teachers being properly resourced.

“At the Education Select Committee the Minister of Education said we would be surprised by next year’s budget.

“This is good news for Pre-School sector”, said Mrs Huata.

ENDS

For more information visit ACT online at http://www.act.org.nz or contact the ACT Parliamentary Office at act@parliament.govt.nz.

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